Joy Whitlock Bio
Every prodigal has their own story of redemption. This story just happens to take place in a cold and dark movie theater that was
probably showing Ben Stillers Along Came Polly just the week before. With tears streaming down her lightly freckled cheeks, legs
and feet curled up to her chest a safe distance from the stickiness of a dried cola stained floor in a hideously colored synthetic-
cloth covered seat, Joy Whitlocks life changed forever.
Joy grew up in Mississippi, in a number of towns that only differed by the names they were given a few hundred years before. Her
father was a minister, which was the reason for the Whitlock familys pilgrimage through the Magnolia state one small town at a time
moving from one flock to the next. If every flock needed a black sheep, Joy readily filled that role maybe too eagerly seeking to numb a
pain that could only be healed by the One who created her. I tried to fill the emptiness I felt with anything that numbed or felt like love
drugs promiscuity the usual stuff. She looks back with regret now at the pain she caused her mother and father as well as the
embarrassment she subjected them to with her actions, a theme she touches on in the standout track Faith Dont Fail.
The good news is that for Joy, God was not content to watch his child aimlessly self-medicate her pain any longer and saw fit to write
himself into her story. You see, God finally caught up to the then 21 year-old in Memphis, Tennessee where she had spent the past
four years living with her sister after leaving her home in Mississippi at age 17. I think He had been trying to show me something
my own emptiness, for the whole year leading up to that point, Joy remembers the night. And from the first scene of the movie, it was
like the goggles were taken off and I could see clearly all that I had ever done lay on His back to bear.
The scene Joy so vividly recounts is from Mel Gibsons The Passion of the Christ. The film, most well known for its controversial
filmmaker and boycotts from various groups, was widely championed by evangelicals or believers, including Joys own mother. She
drove up to Memphis for a visit and convinced me and my sister and her husband to go see it. I was nervous. Its not exactly a movie
you look forward to seeing. But I went and accepted Jesus that night. I didnt wait to leave and get to the parking lot or nothing. In a
way, God and a Girl had its beginning on that night in Memphis.
Joys musical journey started a little over ten years ago when as a teenager she moved from the home of the blues to the birthplace of
rock and roll. Equally symbolic the seminal moment in her young career came at a large outdoor music festival. In the late nineties, it
was hard to not notice the brand of rock that Sarah Mclachlan was spreading across the country with Lilith Fair and the traveling band
of female singer/songwriters and rockers that made up the festivals bill.
Joy and her sister drove the 212 miles to Nashville that summer and when Mclachlan took the stage, alone in the milky spotlight, Joy
felt something she had never known before. I was mesmerized, paralyzed, Joy remembers. Every word, every note, every stroke of
her guitar awakened something inside of me.
You know the rest of the story. Girl asks parents to buy her a guitar that she doesnt know how to play. Girl gets a job at local music
store. Girl meets other musicians and starts band. But in all seriousness that evening in the summer of 1997 truly did awaken in Joy
the artist that she would become and is today. I am so in love with words, melody and the creation of songs. Music evokes so many
feelings. It inspires. It dreams its own dream. It can set you on top of the world. And it can break your heart. But it makes you feel,
and that is what I love.
That simple and pure acknowledgment of the impact that music can have on ones life is also evident when watching Joy perform.
Diminutive and spunky, she stands alone on stage, an artist incapable of insincerity, with a voice that cannot tell a lie while holding a
guitar. She confidently yet humbly shares her songs, songs that chronicle her four year relationship with God. And the songs did not
come easily Joy confesses, I had to go through stuff to get these songs. Im not the kind of writer that sits down and says this is what I
m going to write about today and does it. These songs came out of my struggles and questions that Ive dealt with and some that I still
deal with.
Honesty and struggle are found all throughout God and a Girl and so are love and redemption. But Joy often points out, that even in the
Christian walk one does not avoid the pitfalls, snares and even tragedies of life. Because I still have many struggles in my life, even
as a child of God, the subject matter of most of my songs tends to gravitate towards struggle. I want people to know that pain is not
working against us. It brings us closer to the one who knows pain better than anyone else...Jesus Christ. Whitlocks first single
Holding Onto Me portrays this process by saying Life pushes out/ It pulls me in/ The ride is wilder than the wind/ Why would I worry
when/ Youre holding on to me. This is what Joy refers to as the sanctity of suffering a phrase as provocative as the lyrics that
embody its essence.
God and a Girl encapsulates all that you would expect from Joy Whitlock after knowing her background. The honest rawness of the
lyric that harkens the spirit of a Flannery OConner short story on Faith Dont Fail where Joy says I wish I didnt know what I know /
These memories are like hands around my throat / Its what keeps me in / Its what locks me out / Oh faith dont fail me now.
The plaintiffs prayer that is Testify, which has Joy speaking on behalf of all who have fallen short of the glory with a chorus that begs
of Jesus to Testify for me / cause Ive nothing to say for myself / Ive wasted your time and held on with all my might / to this losing
hand Ive been dealt. And later in the same song she pleads, whether I struggle or go in peace / all that I ask / is let it be You that I
see.
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